Live and let live
by Floppster
Summary: A rabbit can't be a cop. There is just no way! That is what everyone told Judy. And so it must be true right? She had tried her best and nothing had changed and nothing would ever change right? So why continue fighting?


Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Disney, least of all Zootopia (yet)

* * *

The air was cool and as the wind was finally dying down and the sunlight broke through the clouds causing the wet bridge before her to glisten.

The dread that she could feel in her belly almost made her stop, but she pressed on and finally reached the center of the bridge where the raging river below was in full view.

A part of her wanted to go back while she moved up towards the guard railing, go back home and cry like she so often had.

But then again, she had no idea how to quit now.

Or did she?

No, her family was isolating her because of who she was and even the ZPD, her heroes, wanted nothing to do with her.

There was really no alternative here, right?

Right, Judy thought grimly, nobody wanted her and nobody accepted her.

And thus, this was for the best.

She crept even closer to the guard railing and carefully climbed over it.

The situation changed drastically once she had done that.

Without the safety of the guardrail she felt her heart beat in her chest as if it was trying to escape.

As if it was trying to tell her that it, under no circumstances, wanted to go down with her.

She had no idea how long she just stood there frozen behind the guardrail.

Maybe it was the fact that she knew that it was not going to be the jump that would kill her.

No it was the torrential stream below that would toss her around like a doll and hopefully snap her neck on a rock before she drowned.

It was a horrible thought, really and she wondered for a moment if there was a safer and more painless method available to her.

But just like in the past she came up dry.

This was already her best option.

Her entire body was shivering and she thought about jumping once more.

And she almost did when a big paw grabbed her by the neck and pulled her over the railing with relative ease.

Her first instinct was to squeak, which was actually really embarrassing, and kick backwards but she only hit the air.

"What do we have here?" Asked a smooth male voice from behind her and she was turned around which allowed her to see the mammal which had grabbed her.

She was looking into emerald green eyes and beyond that she saw scruffy red fur, a fox.

They both stared at each other for a moment before Judy got over her initial confusion and tried to kick the offending fox once more.

But being a twelve year old rabbit up against a grown up fox meant that her feet were not even close to reaching him at all.

He just smirked at her smugly while she did that and waited for her to stop before he spoke.

"So what was that all about?" He asked while gesturing towards the guardrail.

Judy felt dread, she had been caught!

Now her parents would know and they would no doubt lock her up. Or send her into a mental hospital which was probably even worse than death.

But the dread rapidly turned into anger when she considered that this would all be the damn fox's fault.

"I don't see how that is any of your business, fox!" She spat out the last word as if it was poison and she actually wanted it to be.

If the way she had used his species as an insult phased him at all then he did not show it what so ever.

His grin made place for a more serious expression though when he answered,"you made this my business when you decided to climb over that guardrail while I was watching,rabbit."

He used the word rabbit just as hostile as she had used the term fox.

And Judy was stunned into submission for a moment.

Why would he want to help her?

She was just a stranger, wouldn't it have been better for him to just ignore her and walk away?

"So tell me, why would a cute little rabbit such as yourself throw themselves off a bridge?"

Her ears involuntarily peaked up when she heard him use THAT word.

"DO NOT CALL ME CUTE!" She all but screamed at the offending fox.

And she was now even angrier than before.

How dare that insolent fox pick her up like this and call her cute?

Only rabbits were allowed to call each other cute!

Even preschoolers knew that and not even Gideon would stoop that low.

And the irritating smug grin was back.

"I will stop, if you tell me your reason cutie."

For a moment Judy wondered if she could reach high enough to kick his arm. But then again, she had tried that before and failed, so why even try?

"I told you that is none of your business fox!"

She tried to make a point by distinctively looking away from the offending fox.

This elicited a soft chuckle from said fox,"and I told you that it is my business now, so tell me."

Judy groaned, this fox was really persistent wasn't he.

"You wouldn't understand."

Judy was surprised when the fox moved and actually sat down with his back against the guardrail before he securely positioned her into his lap.

"I am sure that I could."

For a moment Judy wondered whether she could kick him now and then escape. But all she could think about was what he would do if she failed and since she was already having trouble when dealing with Gideon, well a grown fox would probably be even worse.

"You know, I felt somewhat similar when I was about your age." The fox said with a somber undertone.

"How could you have felt similar? You don't even know what I feel like!" Judy asked once more enraged with the condescending fox.

"Oh but I do." Came the immediate answer.

"A long time ago I wanted to be a ranger scout, you know."

Judy felt a sudden sting in her heart.

How did he know?

And was he really the same as her?

"But that is mainly a prey domain you see. I however, being the stupid little kit that I was, did not care and tried my best to become a ranger scout regardless."

She looked up only to see that the fox was looking up towards the sky.

"In hindsight that was a big mistake." His statement was followed by a chuckle that sounded anything but happy.

"In the end the other ranger scouts showed me that there is no place for a predator in their troupe, especially a fox. And after that I felt a lot like you must feel right now."

She could feel his paws gently run down her back while he still looked up into the sky.

It was hard to read him and Judy could not help but wonder what had happened back with the ranger scouts.

"But someone came and saved me."

Her ears perked up when she heard these words.

Someone had saved him?

"I met another fox and he asked me a simple question."

Judy was even more confused now. How could a question save a mammal in a situation like this?

"What question?" She asked in eager anticipation, now that her curiosity had been stirred up.

The fox looked down on her with his green eyes that had this certain gleam to them which was almost hypnotizing and said,"Have you ever seen the aftermath of a suicide attack?"

"What?!" The question just escaped Judy in her confusion.

"That was the question. Naturally I answered no, and he went on to elaborate that he had. He told me how he had seen a young goat blow himself up in the middle of a packed town square. How fast it had happened and how surreal the world had seemed after it had just happened. How he could see where the bomber had been standing moments before just by looking at the mutilated remains of his victims."

Judy could not help but imagine the scene that the fox so calmly described and the though of scattered mammal remains after an explosion made her nauseous.

"He told me that it was easy to see since there was almost nothing left of the people closest to the bomber. And that the farther you went from the center of the explosion the less horrific the effect.

But that still left 7 mammals dead and 39 injured. Leaving those who survived screaming in agony and confusion while..."

"STOP!"

Judy could not take it anymore, her imagination was giving her vivid images of dying mammals, some who were missing limbs and others who were screaming and crying over the bodies of their loved ones.

It brought tears to her eyes.

"Why are you telling me this?"

She had buried her head in his chest since she did not want him to see her tears but she suddenly felt one of his big paws beneath her chin.

And her head was lifted up so that wet amethyst could meet concerned emerald.

"Because every suicide is like that." He said while his paw moved from under her chin up to the top of her head where it began to calmly stroke her ears.

 _Huh?_

"Each and every suicide is an attack, an act of terror against every mammal you have ever known."

It was at that moment that Judy felt a dread flare up inside her once more and she wanted to fidget out of the foxes hold but he held her in his embrace to firmly for that to work.

"The mammals closest to you, your family and your friends, will be the ones who suffer the most pain, the most damage. So let me ask you a second question."

She felt his embrace loosen up and she wondered whether she would be able to wiggle free now before he asked,"why would you do that? Why would you do that to the mammals who care about you?"

The dread in her stomach turned into pure sadness when the realization of how selfish she was washed over her.

He was right.

She had a huge family and they would all be sad.

She had friends and they would all wonder why.

Maybe she would even hurt Gideon who might wonder if he was responsible through bullying her.

She just started crying, not the wet eyes crying from before, but real heartfelt tears which came in streams out of her eyes while she was clinging to this unknown fox as if he was the most important thing in the world.

And all he did was gently stroke her ears.

Time passed and she lost the ability to cry.

The patience that the fox seemed to possess was incredibly considering that he had been caring for her like this out here in the cold for this long.

She inhaled the strong scent of fox that by now seemed really comforting to her and raised her head so that her eyes could meet his once more.

There was hope in hers and pride in his.

"Thank you for saving me."

She meant these words.

He had been right after all, she had always wanted to make the world a better place. And there was no way that the world would be a better place without her being there.

The fox smiled and used his thumb to wipe away some of her tears.

"I am glad to hear that."

* * *

Authors Note:

So hey, here I am once more.  
I have been having trouble for the last few weeks and I have not managed to write anything(AT ALL)  
Well except for this note here. I wanted to let you guys know that I am still alive and that I am trying to write more stuff but I just can't.  
I hope that some of my readers read this so that they know that I am trying.  
As for this little thing here, it is literally somethign that I scrapped months ago.  
I just took away some of the ending so that it is a selfcontained story instead of the first chapter of a series.  
For those who want to know, Nick became a career criminal after the whole ranger scout incident and he ran into Judy after doing a Job in bunnyburrow. Once he saved Judy he would offer her to work with him once she was old enough to do so.  
And since he had saved her life and everyone told her that she would never be a cop Judy takes the offer.  
Stuff would then evolve from there.


End file.
